Survey: Woodford County residents rank No. 1 in healthiness

PEORIA — Of the 102 counties in Illinois, Woodford is the healthiest, a new study determined.

The fifth annual county health rankings released Tuesday by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute reported Woodford County tops in overall health outcomes. Alexander County at the far southern tip of Illinois is the least healthy county in the state, the study found.

The rankings are compiled using more than 30 measures including smoking and obesity rates, access to dentists, physicians and mental health care, poverty and education statistics from several sources, such as the National Center for Health Statistics and USDA.

Woodford County claimed the top spot after climbing from the No. 3 spot in 2011 to No. 2 in 2012.

“It’s a community collaboration that focused on the Health Department a lot, but it’s a community effort to make this a better place,” said Hillary Aggertt, director of health education and supportive services at the Woodford County Health Department.

Woodford was tops in the categories of health outcomes, quality of life and second in health factors and social and economic factors.

Among those measures the county did not excel in was access to clinical care, particularly to access to mental health services. In that category, providers per capita in Woodford County was nearly seven times the state average at 5,713 individuals per provider.

“The building went away, but we do offer mental health services here, TazeWood does, through our facilities,” Aggertt said. She added that other services such as Heart House and Citizens Against Substance Abuse to reach out to members of the communities who need help.

Tazewell County was 27th on the list, and Peoria County fell into the bottom half of healthy counties at 59th.

Peoria’s top performing category was clinical care, in which it ranked seventh in the state. That category includes access to care.

Peoria has a 873-to-1 ration of population to doctors, among the top 10 percent in the United States as well as 836-to-1 for population to mental health providers, near the average in Illinois.

Peoria had fairly poor overall health outcomes. Peoria City/County Health Department public health administrator Greg Chance said the report helps identify the strengths and weaknesses in a community’s heath, and emphasizes the fact that a community’s health is more complicated than its health care practices.

“We tend to not appreciate the other social indicators and behaviors that influence the health of a community,” Chance said.

Problems such as violence, substance abuse and economic opportunity are community issues that have an effect on a community’s overall well-being.

“That shows you that we can’t just address the health concerns of a community from a medical standpoint. We also have to address them from a social standpoint and an economic standpoint,” Chance said.

Peoria’s lowest ranks were in social and economic factors which included children living in poverty, children in single-parent households, violent crime and injury deaths all above state averages.

That category was Tazewell County’s top performance at 10th in the state, listing all of the measures listed above with the exception of injury deaths below state averages.

“Our overall goal is to have every member of the community be as healthy as possible,” said Sarah Fenton, director of clinical services at the Tazewell County Health Department. “Any services that are directed toward the care of anyone who has a specific health care concern does affect the health of the entire community.”

The survey’s complete results can be found at www.countyhealthrankings.org.

Laura Nightengale can be reached at 686-3181 or lnightengale@pjstar.com. Follow her on Twitter @lauranight.